Propaganda Posters

Propaganda posters tell a great story of national fervor and spirit during different periods of the war.

Share your favorites!


War Production Board, 1942 - 1943 - USA.

8 Likes

I want you for the United States Army Air Forces.

https://kimochay613.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/remember_december_7th-548x700.jpg?w=840

Remember Pearl Harbor.

And my personal favorite,

https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/poster8.jpg?quality=85&w=440

Do not spill the secrets behind the Allied back.

4 Likes

Is axis propaganda allowed?

2 Likes

Sure, I’d like to believe we’re all mature enough to see it through a lens of history rather than their direct message.

6 Likes

Just wanted to confirm that we too absolutely agree with Mike @mwilsonainslie

4 Likes

Greek wartime posters

“Forward, sons of Greece!” (I believe this poster copied a French or Polish original, not sure)

“Did you give?” A soldier asking the viewer if he contributed to the social welfare fund.
http://www.mathima.gr/images/yootheme/widgetkit/gallery/Pinakes_afises_skitsa/edoses_esy.jpg

“Come and take them!”. The famous quote of Leonidas (and Gerard Butler) in Thermopylae
http://www.mathima.gr/images/yootheme/widgetkit/gallery/Pinakes_afises_skitsa/ela_na_ta_pareis.jpg

“The Liberators”. The revolutionary of 1821, the modern Evzone and the Hoplite of Marathon.

Mussolini says: “C’mon lads, let’s pull it, because the Greeks are coming!”
http://www.mathima.gr/images/yootheme/widgetkit/gallery/Pinakes_afises_skitsa/mousolini4.jpg

Italian announcement: Rain and bad weather prevented our advance.
http://www.mathima.gr/images/yootheme/widgetkit/gallery/Pinakes_afises_skitsa/vroxi.jpg

“Victory! Liberty! She (Our Lady) is with him”
http://www.mathima.gr/images/yootheme/widgetkit/gallery/Pinakes_afises_skitsa/panagia_mazi_sou.jpg

Playing football

David and Goliath

Mussolini prostitutes himself in Africa with the British, saying: “A Greek deflowered me”

After the battle, Mussolini asks the shepherd: “Did you see any division left?”

1940: Hitler to Mussolini: “Good luck, Duce!”
1941: Mussolini to Hitler: “Good luck, Fuhrer!”

Greek Resistance posters will follow

2 Likes

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Simple Soviet anti-Nazi poster with a brutal message

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Dehumanization is a common tactic in propaganda. Seen here in in Soviet propaganda

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And also here with the British. Gas masks hide the face and remove any connection to humanity.

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A shared history and uniting ideals serves as a rallying point for citizens. American propaganda calls back to the revolutionary war.

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And finally my favorite kind of propaganda, OPSEC posters. British anti-espionage poster.

4 Likes

Dutch propaganda urging people to fight the Japs to liberate the Dutch East-Indies
“The Indies must be free! Work and fight for it!”
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“Holland and The Indies belong together. What has been together for centuries won’t be split up by the Jap.”
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A Hungarian poster talking about the Invasion of Russia with operation Barbarossa
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A Hungarian poster showing a current (ww2) Hungarian soldier next to one probably from the middle ages.
“With new weapons for the ancient land”
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1 Like

Greek Resistance posters

“The New Order”

EAM, the tomb of the Germans!

EAM, National Unity, Everybody to arms!

EAM, the bright guide of the nation to unity!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Plakat_na_EAM.jpg

A comparison: On September 27, 1941, the “light” of EAM shines in Athens, the organisation has 3.000 men. In 1943, ELAS, the armed branch of EAM, has 60.000 men and women at arms, controling c. 50% of Greece, under its own government.

EAM = Justice

Hitler as butcher has already slaughtered Romania, he leads Bulgaria to the slaughterhouse and shouts “who else wants protection?”

EAM: Unity means strength!

Get out of Greece!

People’s Courts for the traitors! Welfare institutions for the victims!

The trophies of the partisan (italian helmet, nazi boot)

Poster in August 1944. The time for Hitler is near

English language poster of EAM

EAM/ELAS breaks the bonds of Athens (This post was made during December 1944, when the battle of Athens between the communist EAM and the British was in full effect, the enemy here are the British, not the Nazis, who left Greece two months earlier)

Allied posters about Greece

US poster of 1942

Canadian poster referring to the donations, caused by the Great Famine.

Posters published by the Nazi Occupation authorities in Greece.

“΀he English are the precursors of communism”

“Greeks, be mindful!” (Stalin, through the Resistance organizations and propaganda, push a Greek to the communist cliff)

3 Likes

@avalantis

I’m getting some 80s movie poster vibes!

3 Likes

Recruitment poster in the Netherlands
You too belong to us
Sign up for the NSKK- group Luftwaffe
More information: address

The NSKK was an organisation which manly drove the supplies trucks. After 1941 the organisation started to recruit in the Netherlands. After the losses on the eastern frond and the landings in Normandie many of the recruits chose this organisation instead of ‘Arbeitseinsatz’ or hiding.
Source: https://historiek.net/ook-gij-behoort-bij-ons-het-nskk-in-de-lage-landen/21925/

4 Likes

maratha%20propaganda%20poster

This is a British propaganda poster printed in the Marathi language. The poster calls upon the Maratha caste (who were considered to be a martial race) to enlist in the British Indian Army to fight for the protection of India against the Axis (represented as a three headed demon). Multiple headed and handed demons, gods and goddesses are common in Hinduism. The poster also shows the Indian emperors (from L to R) Chattrapati Shivaji, Akbar The Great, Maharana Pratap and Banda Singh Bahadur blessing the Indian soldiers. This is probably to claim religious and historical justification for the British side.

4 Likes

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The rearside

“India springs to action, and side by side with Britain, America, Russia and China will trample under foot the tyranny of Germany and Japan.”


Propaganda against spreading rumours

2 Likes

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Translated text: You too can find prosperity and job satisfaction by working in Germany. High payment- good comradeship and favourable working conditions. More information at the local employment office.
The poster was made by the studio Gerbo and the posters were in the streets between 30-04-1942 and 31-05-1942.
Source Image: Beeldbank

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Translated text: You will be alone if you aren’t a member of the N.V.V.
The poster was made in 1941. The N.V.V. was the union of 15 labor unions and exited between 1906 and 1942 and the period between 1945 and 1977
Source image: Beeldbank

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Translated text: Wherever you work. The “Nederlandsche Arbeidsfront” looks after you and your family.
The poster was allowed in the streets until 31-12-1943 and was made by M.A. Koekkoek.
The “Nederlandsche Arbeidsfront” was the successor of the N.V.V. after the Dutch Reichskommisar ordered the labor unions to unit.
Source Image: Beeldbank

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Translated text: Together with Germany for a new Europe
The poster was made by the NSB, Dutch NDSAP equivalent, and publiced on 21-10-1941.
Source image: Beeldbank

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Translated text: Dutch people can enlist in the SS- unit Standarte Westland and North-West. Age 17-40.
The Standarte Westland had less strict requirements than the normal SS troops. The volunteers wend to the East frond. In 1941 the unit merged with Verwilligen Legion Niederlanden (Volunteer Legion Netherlands).
Designer of the poster was Herman Henkels and he made it in Zwolle.
Source about the unit: Nederlanders in de Waffen-SS
Source image: Beeldbank

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Translated tekst: Enlist at Volunteer Legion Netherlands
The poster was made in Juli 1944
Source image: Beeldbank

1 Like

I am currently back home in Scotland for a couple weeks (live in the USA these days) and I thought I’d do some digging into the War Office and their recruiting in Scotland.

Scottish Regiments distinguished themselves in service in both World Wars, indeed in service to the Crown since the earliest days of the Union with the fearsome Highland Regiments, the mighty Royal Scots Greys (Dragoons) and expert lowland infantry.

Recruiting Sergeants were particularly notorious in Scotland, recruiting from football games, pubs, and just about anywhere you could find young men. Indeed the 42nd Regiment of Foot, the Black Watch (these days 3rd Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland) are known for their song Twa Recruiting Sergeants, which talks of the promise of seeing exotic places, “Over the mountains, an’ over the plains. Through Gibraltar tae France and tae Spain”

3 Likes

I see lack of Polish, or Poland-related poster, so let me fill that gap in a bit.
I wanted to upload them directly, but apparently I’m “new user” so I’m only allowed to upload one picture per post and two links per post

So here’s Imgur gallery: https://imgur.com/a/wYRXb19 )
First 2 are from September campaign, next 2 are from Armia Krajowa[Home Army] and Warsaw Uprising, next 4 were made by Allies, next 4 are German, and last 2 are Soviet. Sorry for the inconvenient way of sharing this, but rules are rules and I’m unable to overcome them.
Also I’m sorry I wasn’t able to provide more details about them, they aren’t easy to find on the internet for some reason. :confused:
Ps. Sorry for my eye-bleeding level of English.

3 Likes

Italian post-cards from early 1942

A ballila is pouring castor oil to Greece, singing “Spring has not yet passed / we also purged Greece”

Italy, Germany and Japan are kicking out Britain from Greece, Britain holds a puppy which symbolizes Greece. Russian bear and Uncle Sam are anxious.

Here are some Canadian ones I found online.

First, one of the most famous ones.

An Industrial propaganda poster from the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company

A uniquely Canadian poster
GetYourTeeth!

Another one concerning going overseas.
Lick_Them_Over_There

Another uniquely Canadian poster
ToVictoryPoster

6 Likes

Greek poster, late 1940

“Cold is his everlasting enemy
Help for the soldier’s uniform
Fundraiser, December 16, 1940”
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1 Like

American counterfeiters distorted Hitler’s image into stamps like this, which imitated a real German stamp to Hitler’s glory. These counterfeits were placed on mail that was airlifted to Germany in the form of secret propaganda.
Source: Seconde guerre mondiale : au cƓur de la propagande amĂ©ricaine

5 Likes